Oxfam

"Oxfam International is a confederation of 13 organizations working together with over 3,000 partners in more than 100 countries to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice."

Their 2005 Annual Report notes that their annual budget was $528 million.

In Cahoots with World Bank
Oxfam appears to have refocused its strategy in such a way that it is not in conflict with World Bank policies. A Washington Post article stated (quoted here:, but item is not found on the Post's website):
 * "Breaking with some of its anti-globalization allies, the aid agency Oxfam International issued a report yesterday that praised international trade as a potentially enormous boon to the world's poor ... 'The extreme element of the anti-globalization movement is wrong,' said Kevin Watkins, a senior policy adviser for Oxfam who wrote most of the report. 'Trade can deliver much more [for poor countries] than aid or debt relief.'"

In addition, John Clark, an Oxfam economist, joined the World Bank, and a few of its principals have attended discussion groups hosted by the World Bank. The implications of these moves were spelled out by Anuradha Mittal, Food First!'s co-director:
 * Oxfam's report contradicts its own stated mission that ending poverty requires a global citizen's movement for economic and social justice. We are disappointed that Oxfam, one of the NGO leaders on food security, has chosen to undermine the demands of social movements and think tanks in the South such as Via Campesina, MST, Third World Network, Focus on the Global South, and Africa Trade Network which have demanded that governments must uphold the rights of all people to food sovereignty and the right to food rather than industry-led export-oriented production.

In 2006, Jacob Middleton wrote that:


 * "Oxfam is one of the biggest and most well known international NGOs, and played a leading role in the Make Poverty History campaign last year. It angered many other development organisations by supporting questionable New Labour schemes such as the International Finance Facility. While the World Development Movement rightly condemned this plan as a "Private Finance Initiative for the poor", Oxfam promoted the scheme as an "innovative" means to "secure sustainable development financing". When the government appointed Commission for Africa produced its lengthy report - presenting privatisation and free trade as a panacea for the continent's woes - Oxfam was among the first organisations to offer its praise.


 * "In the run-up to the G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, last year, increasingly frustrated NGOs within the Make Poverty History coalition voiced their concerns about the "revolving door" between Oxfam and the government.


 * "Justin Forsyth, Oxfam's former director of policy and campaigns, became Tony Blair's special adviser on international development. Shriti Vadera, an economic adviser to Gordon Brown, has been central to the development of public-private partnerships and is on the Oxfam board of trustees. John Clark, another former campaigns manager at the charity, left Oxfam for the World Bank and has advised Tony Blair on Africa. When Oxfam interviewed candidates for Forsyth's replacement, half those on the interview panel were advisers to New Labour ministers."

Curious incident

 * On Nov. 10, 2002 Oxfam Great Britain refused a GBP5,000 (USD8,500) donation from Prof. Ted Honderich - the royalties from his book After the Terror. The book is a moral philosophy examination of the causes and justifications for violence/terror.  Oxfam construed this book as a "justification for Palestinian terrorism", and thus rejected the donation.  NB: Honderich is one of Europe's foremost philosophers - perhaps the leading moral philosopher.  Prof. Honderich discusses this issue in detail here.

Staff or Directors

 * Bernice Romero Advocacy Director
 * John Clark former Campaigns Manager and then Development Policy Advisor at Oxfam and now at the World Bank
 * Kevin Watkins senior policy adviser

Honorary Personnel

 * Mary Robinson Honorary President
 * Amartya Sen Honorary Adviser

2005 Board Officers

 * David Bryer Chair
 * Ella Vogelaar Vice Chair
 * Anton Reithinger Treasurer

Board Comprises the Chairs and Directors of each affiliate: Source (Pdf)
 * Oxfam America: Chair Janet McKinley, President Raymond Offenheiser
 * Oxfam Australia: Chair: Judy Mitchell, Director: Andrew Hewett.
 * Oxfam-in-Belgium: Chair: Anton Reithinger, Director: Stefaan Declercq.
 * Oxfam Canada: Chair: Richard Evans, Director: Robert Fox.
 * Oxfam Germany: Chair: Isabel Scholes, Director: Paul Bendix.
 * Oxfam GB: Chair: Rosemary Thorp, Director: Barbara Stocking.
 * Oxfam Hong Kong: Chair: Tse Kam Keung, Director: Chong Chan Yau.
 * Intermón Oxfam (Spain): Chair’s Delegate: Carlos Losada, Director: Ariane Arpa.
 * Oxfam Ireland: Chair: Tony McMullan, Director: Brian Scott.
 * Oxfam New Zealand: Chair: Bill Mansfield, Director: Barry Coates.
 * Oxfam Novib (Netherlands): Chair: Ella Vogelaar, Director: Sylvia Borren.
 * Oxfam Québec: Chair: Nicole St-Martin, Director: Pierre Véronneau.

Contact details
Oxfam International Secretariat Suite 20, 266 Banbury Road Oxford, OX2 7DL UK Tel: +44 1865 339 100 Fax: +44 1865 339 101 Email: information AT oxfaminternational.org Web: http://www.oxfam.org/en

Oxfam America Chair: Janet McKinley; Director: Raymond Offenheiser 226 Causeway Street, 5th Floor Boston, MA 02114-2206 USA Tel: +1 617-482-1211 Fax: +1 617-728-2594 Email: info AT oxfamamerica.org

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Barbara Chapman
 * John Whitaker - former marketing director
 * John Shaw - former finance director
 * Cecil Jackson-Cole - cofounder
 * Neil Alldred
 * Charles Abani - former regional director South Africa

External resources

 * Patrick Bond, "Moderates Wilt But Radical South Africans Struggle On", Znet, April 17, 2005.